Stone Man Couloir - November 22nd

 After 3 days of sunshine my friend Miles Morris and I went searching for some north facing slopes and more sheltered areas in hopes of still finding some good skiing conditions. On Friday Nov 22nd we left the Heather Meadows Parking lot at Mt. Baker Ski Area at around 7:45 am. We followed an existing skin track that Miles had placed on Tuesday up the bowl and to the top of Mt. Herman. The steep NW facing aspect off the backside was untracked and conditions looked excellent.
 After transitioning and taking a short break Miles ski cut one turn and there were no signs of instability. After he exited in the valley below I followed and had great boot top consolidated powder the entire way down.

Me skiing down the backside of Hermans

 When we had arrived at the parking lot that morning Miles and I had been looking at the Stone Man Couloir. We had discussed possibly doing it if the exit chutes were filled in enough and we found conditions to be stable, I had never checked it out so early in the season. I quickly set a skin track from the valley directly over until we were looking up Stone Man. After 3 days of sunshine and consolidation Miles and I had found no signs of significant instability. There were some small pin wheels being consistently shed off the surrounding rocks, but we were confident it would only be a small concern in the couloir. The lookers left (skiers right) chute looked like it would provide the best exit so we decided to climb the lookers right chute to gain the couloir proper. It proved to be slightly tricky, but we both made it through without any significant difficulty. 

Me entering Stone man via lookers right (skier left) chute.

 While it probably would have been possible to skin up some of Stone Man we opted to boot back up the lookers right side. The main factor in this decision was leaving the rest of the couloir untracked for skiing. Throughout the lower section we had mainly sun warmed powder that made the boot pack not to difficult. Miles and I alternated setting the boot pack, and at the top, where the mountain provided more shade, we had some nice light powder that was more difficult on the way up, but great on the way down! There was no difficulty with cornices at the top and we topped out around 11:00am.

Me going up Stone Man

 We both geared up and I prepared to ski first. After ski cutting one turn up top and feeling confident I ripped the couloir the entire way to above the exit chute. I had one small sluff that I initiated up top, but it was minor and totally manageable. I skied cautiously up to the chute for a closer look. There was a rock in the middle so I pointed it, hoped over the rock,  and straight lined out to the snow field below. A couple big GS turns finished off an excellent descent in surprisingly good conditions! I then watched Miles drop and he as well enjoyed an excellent run.

Checking out our lines down Stone Man. You can just see the entrance track on the right.

 We then skinned onto the shoulder of Herman and back up to the top. After enjoying a gorgeous lunch with awesome views we skied sun effected mushy snow, that in no way compared to the morning, down the the creek below. We arrived back at the car at 1:30pm.

Creek Exit

Shuksan